A century of busting crime

And,it’s in the inception of the CID wherein lies the story of why the Bombay Police is mentioned in the same breath as Scotland Yard.

The story goes that soon after the riots of 1908,the only Indian Civil Service member to be appointed as Commissioner of Police,Stephen Meredyth Edwardes,was nominated to the Morison Committee to suggest improvements to the urban policing system.

 Edwards,who submitted an extensive analysis,was back in England when he was appointed commissioner,with his appointment letter accompanied by instructions to visit Scotland Yard and study the working of the London Metropolitan Police. With first-hand knowledge,he returned to Bombay,where at the time,in one instance,a police station was reduced to holding office in the dressing room of theatre in Grant Road.

Edwards set up the CID on June 8,1909,with four branches — political,foreign,crime and miscellaneous crime. The CID was placed under the orders of the Imperial Police,who was given the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police. The first DCP of the CID was F A M H Vincent.

In its early years,against the backdrop of war,the CID spent much of its time tracking intelligence. The World War I also provided for a split between the departments,with the Special Branch looking after political and foreign affairs and the Crime Branch looking into intricate crime. The Special Branch had an additional burden: Handling political events in the city,especially the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations,where political intelligence and recruiting was occurring. Even songs sung at such occasions could have coded messages for the crowd,say CID records from the time when anti-Establishment meetings were gaining fervour in British India.

 It may have been only in the third decade of their existence that CID officials began to be involved in some high-profile cases,but that is a tradition that continues to date.

CID Trivia
* The first accommodation: The first DCP in charge of the Bombay CID didn’t have sufficient infrastructure to stay with his family. The official quarters allotted to him was at Datoobhoy Mansion on Madame Cama Road,on a “sharing basis”. Being married,he found this system inappropriate. Left with no option he checked into the Taj Mahal Hotel on June 14,1909,days after taking charge,and only shifted after he was allotted his official bungalow at No 7,Marine Lines. The government later compensated his stay at the Taj. His bill for two weeks? Rs 136.
* The first Indian DCP of the CID: In 1928,that laurel was won by Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara,who made the most famous arrest ever by the Bombay Police,that of Mahatma Gandhi. On January 4,1932,Gandhi was arrested from Mani Bhavan in Gamdevi by the then Commissioner of Police G S Wilson and Petigara. Years later,it was the CID  Special Branch that probed the assassination of Gandhi. DCP J D Nagarvala,a Parsi who headed the investigation,personally arrested Narayan Apte from Pyrkes Apollo Hotel in Colaba,behind Regal Cinema.
* The Quit India Movement: Early on August 9,1942,the CID made several arrests including that of Gandhi,Maulana Azad,Sarojini Naidu and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. When Indira Gandhi opened the door at Anand on Carmichael Road,she mistook the police for the staff of the American Broadcasting Company with whom Nehru had an appointment.
* Beloved Zanjeer: While the city will always fondly recall Zanjeer,the sniffer dog which sniffed out the piles of RDX for the Mumbai Police in Bombay,Mumbra and Thane,an Alsatian named Major was equally passionate in investigations. Basil Kane,who later become DCP was an inspector with the Crime Branch when he was sent to Britain to learn dog handling under the supervision of Scotland Yard’s Dog Training Centre. Kane brought Major from the training centre to Bombay.

Some key cases cracked by the CID
* Among the most sensational cases the CID handled was the Lamington Road Police Station shooting of 1930,when revolutionaries planned to assassinate the then police commissioner Sir Patrick Kelly. On failing to locate the commissioner,the duo fired 20 shots on the first European they spotted,a sergeant and his wife,outside the Lamington Road Police Station on October 9,1930. In 1946,the CID investigated conducted an extensive probe to locate two Indian Army deserters from Calcutta who had come to the city,taken a taxi and had randomly fired from sten-guns in a crowded Kalbadevi market,killing many.
* Post Independence,the Bruce Street Dacoity of 1949 is a memorable case. Planned for a date when the Tata Mills were to pay workers their salary,four dacoits in a black car attacked workers who were loading trunks containing Rs 4,75,000 into a van. With the case involving the influential house of Tata,the Crime Branch was under immense pressure to find the culprits. All of them were later booked and the money restored.
* In 1951,the Lloyd’s Bank robbery made waves as taxi driver Laurence Quadros was killed in a daring dacoity after four armed men made off with Rs 12,00,000. That taxi driver’s son is A L Quadros,president of the Bombay Taximen’s Union.
* In the late 1960s,Bombay saw its first serial killer,Raman Raghav,who killed homeless victims who were asleep,all inflicted with head injuries from a heavy and sharp object. A chance arrest by sub-inspector Alex Fialho took place on August 25,1968,when Raghav was finally brought to police station. Judged to be of unsound health,he died in 1989 at the Sassoon Hospital of kidney trouble.
In 1986,Senior Inspector Madhukar Zende was the only officer who knew Charles Sobhraj or the ‘bikini killer’,nicknamed thus for the many alleged murders of foreign tourists. The Bombay police along with the CID had formed a crack team to hunt down Sobhraj who had just escaped from Tihar jail. Sobhraj who was a master of disguise,but a dramatic arrest was made at Goa’s O Coqueiro where Sobhraj was having lunch in disguise. Ironically,the day he was caught was also his birthday.